Wild Oat Milk: Accidentally Breedy With Benefits (Spice in the Mountains Book 3) by Dawne Elena

Author:Dawne, Elena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

13

JEM

Isnap my head up, as Gunnar enters Dad’s living room with Viv strapped to him in the baby sling.

“What are you doing here?” I ask through my teeth. “I told you to—”

Ignoring me, he walks straight up to my dad and thrusts his hand out — a non-verbal but very clear directive for it to be shaken. “Pleased to me you, Mr. Wade. I’m Gunnar Scott, Viviana’s father.”

I groan and jump to my feet, nearly spilling the last of Dad’s lasagna into his lap, because he has zero appetite, and after coaxing him to take each mouthful, we were only halfway through.

Dad stares at Gunnar’s hand, then at Viv, and finally at me. His eyes remain somewhat vacant, while I imagine the cogs in his once sharp mind slowly turn, to form a conclusion.

“Shelby’s little girl?” he asks.

I glance at Gunnar, and my cheeks heat, as I nod. “Yeah, Dad.”

“Congratulations,” he says to Gunnar, slowly reaching to shake his outstretched hand.

But Gunnar pulls his hand away. He’s staring at me, and he’s not happy. “Shelby?”

“Nice girl,” Dad says in a monotone, as he summons the mind to have a fucking conversation, despite my talking to his blank expression for the last ten minutes.

“Gunnar, can you please go back next door? My dad can’t handle visitors currently.”

Dad looks at me, and then at Gunnar. He sits up more in his chair. “I’m fine.”

“Oh, really?” I take his plate to the kitchen and leave it there. “Then why am I practically spoon-feeding you like a baby? You’ve said two words to me since I came in, but now you want to talk, because a handsome man entered the room?” I growl and toss a damp facecloth in his lap. “You have sauce on your chin.”

Gunnar says my name so softly, I want to cry, but I grit my teeth, force it down, and turn my anger on him. “I told you not to follow me.”

“And I chose to disobey,” he replies with a what are you going to do about it? look on his face. “This isn’t okay, Jem. How long have you been doing this alone?”

“Since I had to. It’d be nice to share the joy, but being an only child is really fucking hard sometimes. Larger families probably do a lot of things way better, but I don’t exactly have a big family lying around here. So I do what I can. Alone. At least I can do things my way.”

“And this is the way you’re choosing?” Gunnar asks, looking around. “It’s too hard.”

Viv gives a squawk of agreement.

“How is Shelby’s little peach?” Dad coos, coming to life a little, like he sometimes has lately, when I have Viv with me.

His new antidepressants might actually be starting to help, but it’s hard to tell, with so few good days struggling to shine through the bad. He seems to like Viv, but when he made the assumption she was Shelby’s, I didn’t have the strength to tell him the truth. Didn’t want to send him reeling backward into despair, which is what Gunnar’s about to do.

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